Colorado takes on Kansas to begin Big 12 tournament

Desiree Wooten and Tabitha Betson high-five after a Colorado Buffaloes bucket against Utah. (Photo by Jacob Hock/Sko Buffs Sports)

After a long day of Big 12 basketball, the conference tournament bracket is shaping up. The sixth-seeded Colorado Buffaloes (20-10, 11-7 Big 12) will play the 11th-seeded Kansas Jayhawks (19-13, 8-10 Big 12) tomorrow after they beat 14th-seeded UCF, 56-35.

Kansas controlled the Knights for the entire game, even without its star guard, junior S’Mya Nichols, performing particularly well. Nichols shot just 17% from the field, well shy of her 41.4% season average, but still made her impact felt with a team-leading four assists.

Freshman forward Jaliya Davis was there to pick up the slack in her third career double-double, recording 10 points and 11 rebounds while adding three assists.

The Jayhawks had a poor shooting night as a team, but stunted the UCF offense with their zone defense, holding the Knights to below 25% shooting.

Colorado beat Kansas in the teams’ last matchup, 69-66 in overtime at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas, in early February.

The Buffs found success by limiting Kansas’s 3-point offense to just 12.5%, far below the 32% it hit against UCF in the first round and 35% it shoots on the season. If the Buffs’ defense can limit perimeter shooting, it will bode well for them, as Kansas is just 1-6 when shooting less than 25% from beyond the arc.

This matchup also sets up an interesting bench battle. The Kansas bench fetched 29 points against UCF, while Colorado’s bench averaged 27.2 points per game in conference play.

The Buffs will lean on junior guard Desiree Wooten, who has come off the bench in 23 of 30 games this season while leading the team with 13.1 points per game.

Davis will look to follow up her double-double performance in the first round with a matchup against senior forward Jade Masagayo. The two will go head-to-head in the paint, an area in which both teams have excelled this season.

In their last matchup, Davis fouled out in 26 minutes after going 4-of-9 from the field with 14 points. 

“I'm looking forward to just playing against [Masagayo] again,” Davis said after the Jayhawks’ win over UCF. “Last time I didn't perform exactly how I wanted to perform.” 

Colorado appeared to fall into their old ways in its final regular-season match against the BYU Cougars last week, collapsing in the fourth quarter. 

Kansas has outscored its opponents by an average of 4.1 points during the fourth quarter in conference play, while the Buffs have outscored their conference opponents by less than one point on average.

The Buffs will look to get out to an early lead, so that if they start treading water in the fourth quarter, they have enough of a cushion to right the ship.

“I think they're a complete team. You know, they run all their Princeton actions at a really high level with a great pace,” Kansas head coach Brandon Schneider said. “I think there's things both offensively and defensively we can do better [from the last matchup], but they're a terrific team, and they've had an outstanding season.”

Colorado tips off against the Jayhawks at 7 p.m. MT from the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri, on Thursday (ESPN+).